I know-a-guy-who-knows-a-guy that says he can get me a discount on a new Mac. Appearently, he can get a government discount on iMacs, and then has a friend who installs G4 boards in these iMacs. My question is, is this possible to do, or is he ripping people off? I wouldn’t think that a board off of a G4 could be installed in an iMac, since the ports would be in different locations and they are not the same size. Is it possible to replace parts of the G3 board already in the iMac to make it a genuine G4?
Well, despite its unusual shape, a little bit of probing the innards of my mom’s iMac seemed to indicate to me that it contains a fairly standard motherboard. Most modern motherboards conform to agreed upon standards, and the iMac’s board likely does too, in the name of low cost. So a G4 board might fit in an iMac. I don’t know Apples very well, but I suppose it is possible that a G4 and an iMac use the very same board, with different CPUs.
That does not mean that slapping a G3 or G4 board or CPU in an iMac will fly. Power supply and cooling issues are certainly possible, not to mention the constrictive space that might prevent a larger heatsink and fan that a more powerful CPU requires from even fitting inside that oh-so-chic case. Compromises, such as omitting the fan, may lead to overheating and earlier failure of the system.